When Will We Learn?

When will we ever learn that letting go is not the same thing as giving up?

When will we ever learn that our lives are most under control when they are out of our control and in God’s?

When will we ever learn that sometimes the best way to love people is to do nothing for them, that the greatest mercy we can show them is allowing them to face the consequences of their choices?

When will we ever learn that prayer is not a last resort but top priority, that God wants our love and worship before He wants our work?

When will we ever learn to say less but mean more, and that sometimes the most gracious words are piercing truth–a two-edged sword piercing our heart and theirs?

When will we ever learn that all the time we are trying to fix people–trying to fix ourselves–we are standing in the way of the Great Physician?

When will we ever learn that it takes much time looking into the mirror of God’s Words before we can recognize the beam in our own eye?

When will we ever learn that what we learn and when we learn it has been fore-ordained by our Master, that each life follows its own curriculum and we dare not grade each other?

When will we ever learn that people are human, that our leaders will fail us, that those who should be our examples and supports can and do make bad choices, because we are all so broken?

When will we ever learn that the failures of other people should not keep us from forgiving, should not keep us from growing, should not keep us from expecting them to be who God wants them to be?

When will we ever learn that the pain of broken dreams and broken hearts can never be so great as the beauty, healing, and life in Hopeful, Faithful Love?

When will we ever learn that when we lack it is because we failed to ask, failed to receive?

When will we ever learn that doubt and discouragement are of the Devil and must be rebuked in the Name of Jesus, that God is not the Author of Confusion and He Who is Faithful and True has not left us comfortless?

When will we ever learn to live and love with open hands?

Perhaps, letting go is giving up, but only as with a helium balloon that sails up, up into the sky–out of our sight but fully in God’s view.